Post Office to send and receive Evri and DPD parcels

Post Office customers will soon be able to send parcels over the counter using DPD and Evri delivery services.

The new service will begin in selected stores in time for the peak Christmas delivery season, the Post Office said.

It is the first time in the 360-year history of the Post Office that it will offer carriers other than Royal Mail.

Royal Mail said at the time its services had been affected by 18 days of strike action and high levels of staff absence.

It previously said delivering letters was no longer profitable and that it was focusing on parcels because of the increasing popularity of online shopping.

But the company also faces fierce competition from other couriers and in February it claimed it was losing about £1m a day. The Post Office said its partnership with Royal Mail remained "of utmost significance".

Responding to the Post office's Evri and DPD announcement, Royal Mail said it had a "long history of working with the Post Office." It said that as customer preferences evolved "we have also opened up a variety of new ways for customers to access our services".

DPD parcels can already be collected from Post Office branches, while those using Evri are able to send and receive via the PUDO and Parcels Online services using a website or smartphone app.

Since these services began, the Post Office said it had seen a broader demographic coming through its doors, but was yet to offer customers the opportunity to use alternative services over the counter in branches.

Post Office chief executive Nick Read said the move to offer Evri and DPD services at the counter was "disrupting the mails market to offer greater choice for customers". He said it would "give face-to-face parcel customers genuine choice over how they ship".

It is not clear which of its 11,500 branches will offer Evri and DPD services.

Evri, which says it delivers more than 730 million parcels each year, said its international services would be available "at selected Post Office counters".